1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to mass data storage systems, and in particular relates to magnetic data storage systems of large storage density.
2) Description of the Related Art
Mass storage devices for information technology are now mainly carried out by magnetic data storage (hard disks, magnetic tapes, etc) using the spin of electrons in ferromagnetic materials. These are expected to have a booming market of more than $15×109 by 2005. Over the past decade, the data storage density in a magnetic memory device has been increasing by more than 60% annually. However, there is a physical limit to sustain this trend. In conventional recording, each data bit comprises numerous grains to maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio and grain size is reduced in order to obtain higher data storage density. Unfortunately, small thermal energy alone can trigger random magnetic switching of the grains when the grains size becomes too small. This is the well-known superparamagnetic limit. It has been predicted that superparamagnetic effects will limit the densities of current longitudinal magnetic medium to about 100 Gbit/in2. Therefore, it is urgent to find an alternative approach to increase the data storage density. Since the early 1990's, researchers have been trying to take advantage of the ultra-high resolution of scanning probe microscope (SPM) for data storage application.
SPM technology, specifically atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM), has been proven to be capable of storing information by thermo-mechanically indenting medium with planar surfaces in a nanometer scale. Among the ongoing worldwide projects of ultra-high capacity memory, “Millipede” of IBM seems to be the most promising one. In “Millipede”, thousands of tip/cantilever assemblies are integrated on a single silicon chip to serve as writing/reading heads. During writing, the tips are heated up to ˜400 and penetrates into plastic medium to create a nanometer-size indents. For reading, the hot tips (˜300) act as the parallel reading heads and the data are retrieved by measuring the heat flux between individual tips and the plastic medium. Erasing is achieved by locally heating the plastic to ˜150 until it flows and fills the indent. The write-read speed and the data storage density are eventually determined by the number of tip assemblies and the tip size, respectively. The SPM based data storage system described above is hopeful to bring tremendous data storage capacity to laptops, cell phones and other mobile devices. However, several technique problems still need to be solved before it can become a commercial product. First of all, the “Millipede” system still runs very slowly, especially its reading rate is limited by the complex measurement of the heat flux. Secondly, controlling heating on a nanometer scale is inherently difficult. Also wear and corrosion of the plastic medium will significantly affect the duration of memory medium. In view of these disadvantages, there is a strong need for improved medium and storage concepts to be used in SPM based storage systems.
Shape memory alloy (SMA) materials are known for their reversible martensitic phase transformation. The transition temperature required for SMAs to recover a large strain is usually below 100° C.; the transition temperature can be varied by selection of the composition of the alloying metals, thereby enhancing the design flexibility. Comparing to a plastic material, SMAs also offer better mechanical properties, such as long-term stability and corrosion resistance.
A typical prior art SMA-based data storage medium is disclosed in the Durig et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,849. That patent discloses the use of the shape memory effect (SME) for the writing, reading, and erasing of data. However, the data rate is limited by the slow heat flux measurement. The Durig et. al. patent discloses that local heating of an area on the medium can alter its electronic properties. Further, Durig et. al. explains that these locally altered areas can be detected or read by using an STM tip for sensing the tunneling current between the medium and tip.